Source: Bright and Beautiful

With the start of every new year, there’s a surge of excitement that rushes through me as I crack open the spine of a new planner. There’s an optimistic and hopeful energy that fills the air those first few days of every new year. There’s something truly special about having the opportunity to start fresh, set high hopes and dreams, and put your best foot forward alongside everyone around you as you each tackle a new year and pursue your own best version of you. For me, it’s not just a new year but also the beginning of a new age as I celebrate my own birthday mid-January.

With setting goals and expectations for the upcoming year, there is an inherent sense of reflection on the successes and failures of the last 365 days. This year, in laying out my intentions for 2019, I’m choosing to give myself grace. Rather than critiquing my failures and shortcomings of the last year, I want to continue to look forward and focus on the promising potential of the new year and age that lie ahead of me.

This year I have also decided to keep things simple by only laying out my broad intentions for the year rather than trying to get specific. I’m sure there are plenty of self-help books out there that would find that last statement controversial and a recipe for disaster for any individual trying to realistically set and achieve their goals. However, if you’re anything like me, your list of New Year’s resolutions typically starts off looking something like: eat healthy, exercise more, go to bed earlier every night… clean the pantry, etc., and before you know it, you’re looking at something that looks a lot more like a long and dreadful to-do list.

While I do have specific goals in mind and plans for achieving those goals in the upcoming year, I want my intentions for 2019 to serve as a kind and gentle reminder of themes and areas in my life that I continually want to improve on for the years to come – things that I will never quite master perfection in but will instead attempt to find a good balance in. Here are my intentions for the upcoming year:

GO OUTSIDE AND ENJOY THE DAY – Whether it’s a short walk, a hike, or week-long camping trip, there’s nothing I find more refreshing than breathing in some fresh air. As much as I enjoy the outdoors, it’s not uncommon for me to sometimes go whole days without really stepping outside for any longer than a few minutes. I want to be better at finding reasons to spend time outside and less time sitting in front of a computer.

KEEP AN OPEN MIND – I spent a lot of time last year studying for a big exam and not a lot of time reading books simply out of enjoyment. While I don’t want to abandon my studying, I hope to make more time to read books I enjoy reading, learn something new, or take a fun class. This year I’m excited to spend some extra time bringing to life my mental vision for this website!

STRIVE FOR A SUSTAINABLE & HEALTHY ROUTINE – I’m still trying to find a routine that’s a good harmony of exercising regularly, eating healthy, getting enough rest, etc. It seems like there are moments in my life where I’m really good at one but not so great at another. My intention here is to find a routine that marries all the various pieces together and feels right and sustainable for me.

SLOW DOWN & EBRACE UNCERTAINTY – The older I get, the faster time seems to get away from me. I used to think that everything, or at least most things in my life, were things within my control scheduled to fall into place according to my own timeline. I have come to find that, as a general rule, I am not in full control of my circumstances and future. However, I am in control of how I show up to those circumstances and I can choose to show up in the discomfort of the unknown and still savor and enjoy the moment rather than fixating on self-imposed timelines.

DON’T FORGET TO BE GRATEFUL – With the hustle and bustle of everyday responsibilities and commitments, it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and forget how blessed our lives really are. I want to make the extra effort to think about the blessings in my life, let those around me know that I’m seeing their acts of kindness, and remember to say “thank you.”

LET GO OF PERFECTION AND SHOW YOURSELF GRACE – I am, without a doubt, my own worst critic. While I don’t think I’ll relinquish my perfectionist tendencies over night, sometimes I need a kind reminder that “good enough is good enough” and there is no such thing as finishing everything on one’s to-do list and that’s perfectly okay. Instead of focusing on the things that were left undone at the end of the day, I want to focus on the things that were accomplished and remember that tomorrow is a new day.

Happy 2019! What are some of your goals for the new year? If you had to choose just one thing to focus on, what would it be?

– Corinna

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The last few weeks, on my train ride to and from work, I’ve circled around the idea of wanting to share things outside the realm of recipes on the blog. I blame it on my perfectionist tendencies that every time I think about this I end up hung up on the same small detail: how do I make the transition?

Out of fear of having it feel random or abrupt, I’ve hesitated.

So, just like that. Without a smooth, thought out transition, I will begin to share.

About a year ago, I came across Caroline Rector’s blog, Unfancy – where I I first learned about “capsule wardrobes.”

In one of her posts, she says:

“When things aren’t adding up, start subtracting. So often, when I’m faced with a problem, my first reaction is to think I need to add something to my life to solve it. Like, if I’m disorganized, I should buy more storage containers. Or, if I’m feeling stressed, I should go shop for a new dress to make myself feel better. When the answer to both of those problems could be to subtract something from my life.”

These words seem to have resonated with me and really got me thinking about the things I own – not in a good way.

Automatically, my thoughts shifted into my own closet. For years I had been blaming crummy rentals and their lack of appropriate storage. Suddenly it dawned on me that maybe this feeling of dissatisfaction I got every time I stepped into my closet had nothing to do with drawers, shelves, or some intricate storage solution I could add into the equation to make it all better. Plain and simple, having these things was the problem.

I can genuinely say that the idea of having less (as opposed to a heaping pile of things I had mixed feelings about) sounded nice. The idea of having 3 things I loved as opposed to 30 that I didn’t care for sounded nice. The idea of having this auto-pilot wardrobe with only outfits I loved sounded nice.The idea of how simple it could be if I just had less… sounded oh-so-nice.

While I didn’t hop on the capsule wardrobe bandwagon, I did adopt a sudden desire to purge / minimize / downsize – whatever you want to call it. It initially began with the closet but since then, has made its way into every room of the house. It’s still a work in progress but so far, it’s incredible to see how something as simple as being more aware of the things you own and making an active effort to minimize can be so rewarding. Our space looks more intentional and less like a random assortment of things that don’t fit together. I feel like I can now more clearly see a surfacing theme and a sense of cohesiveness that had been previously masked by superfluous things.

I realize that after reading this you might be led to think that our home was in utter disarray prior to this – but I assure you, that’s not the case. (By society’s standards, I would say we’re pretty tidy people, as a matter of fact.) This has been more of an exercise centered around assessing our needs for the things we have. It’s been about having less crowded bookshelves and drawers with a little extra space. It’s also been about the importance of being more conscious and aware of the things we have and being much more intentional about our purchases.

I’m excited to keep this going and would love to hear any thoughts you may have on downsizing. Have any of you tried becoming more minimalistic?

– Corinna

Welcome and thank you for stopping by!

It’s been a long time that I have entertained the idea of starting my own blog. My excuse for the last few years has been something along the lines of being a full-time student and having little to no free time to produce any content. Well, little did I know that having a full-time job meant giving up a substantially large portion of my free time. However, I can’t think of a better time to start than now.

Weekdays from nine to five, I am a transfer pricing associate at an accounting firm. I won’t bore you with the details of what that entails or give you a long-winded job description but, to give you an idea, I spend a lot of my day staring at financial data in Excel spreadsheets. Don’t get me wrong; I love finance, numbers, and Excel!

However, I am certain that my brain is equal parts right and left. My hopes are that this blog serves as a creative outlet where I can share the less-technical details of my day-to-day along with other things that I enjoy and inspire me. I’m excited to see how this grows and hope that you keep coming back for more!

– Corinna